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Brain Slugs
History First Contact Hundreds of research expeditions disappear into space every solar year, so it was never determined which group, cluster, or even species was responsible for the blight that is the Ulkis Gerast. The species, known commonly as "Brain Slugs", originated on the large terrestrial planet Quijek in the Mylire Cluster. Though Mylire contains several garden worlds, Quijek was the only one to contain significant amounts of animal life, and was ultimately where the ill-fated vessel was to land. This unknown, mostly hypothetical research vessel was the seed of the Slug society. The Brain Slugs claim to be able to absorb the knowledge of their victim during the Husking Process, and as the brain slugs are a hive-mind species, the Husking of a single researcher could result in the spontaneous arrival of self-awareness in the entire species simultaneously and essentially overnight. Though, like all theories regarding the Slugs, this is mostly speculation, it is the most widely accepted explanation for the completely unprecedented rate of technological advancement in the following years. Regardless of physical proof, the theory of the lost research vessel remains the most popular to this day, though whether this is because it is the most probable or because other races are terrified by the only logical alternative remains open to debate. Awakening The Slug propaganda claims as an example of their superiority as a species the fact that they hold the record for shortest time between achieving self-awareness and developing slipstream technology - 10 years. This has been largely confirmed, as the Mylire Cluster was passed through without any evidence of civilization on any of the planets as recently as the year before the claimed 10. The Brain Slugs kept entirely to themselves for the first 7 years after their awakening, what developments were made on the planet's surface during that time are unknown to everyone but the Slugs themselves. The first contact the made by the Slugs with an alien species was with slavers. The details of the meeting are undocumented, but it is known that all 200 slaves being transported were somehow purchased by the slugs. When this new group of recruits had been Husked and Taken the space program of the Slugs kicked into full gear. Within a year mining operations on the other two garden planets of the cluster had started, and by the end of the 10 year development period they had been stripped to uninhabitable, dead worlds. During this time contact with outside species increased, particularly the slavers, who continued providing the Slugs with the Husks necessary to expand their species' workforce. The system also began earning its infamous reputation - people that arrived on the planets tended to never be heard from again, often with no evidence of them ever having landed in the first place, even when eyewitness accounts confirmed it. It soon became apparent that the only safe way to deal with the Slugs was in space, leading to the Orbital Stations in the ring around Quijek being opened for use as trading posts. Slipstream in 10 Years Despite their comparatively primitive technology the Slugs were cutting deals with highly advanced planets across the slipstreams within 9 years of their awakening. Though all of the civilizations capable of slipstream travel share few similarities, one firm belief that has never been deviated from is the absolute refusal to share slipstream technology with alien species. Many claim that the Slugs must have had help in achieving slipstream tech so quickly, but there is no evidence that they did not manage it simply based on what they could absorb from their victims. In fact, very little is known or understood about the knowledge absorption capabilities of the Ulkis Gelast, the main reason that the ability is accepted as reality and not some speculative piece of science fiction is that there is no other conceivable way to explain the species' behavior. Expansion and Religion TO BE CONTINUED